Entre deux cultures: Danse et mort en Provence et Catalogne

In the Middle Ages, the Pyrenees were not a border but a hinge between two twin cultures : those of Occitania and the Catalan Countries. The counties of Toulouse, Languedoc, Provence, and Nice were associated with the Count of Barcelona, King of Aragon-Catalonia, and thus maintained a close link, even after the Cathar genocide and the subsequent annexation of the Cathar region to the Kingdom of France. This article thus considers the similarities (and dif­fer­ences) that exist between the Dance of Death in Morella (diocese of Tortosa) and that of the commune of So Barn (Le Bar-sur-Loup) (diocese of Nice), as well as the iconographic and spiritual context that might explain or clarify the images and texts that accompany them. It also examines the links between the impressive survivals of this type of spectacle in Aix-en-Provence (until the French Revolution) and in Catalonia, in Verges, until today.